Utilities in West and South Lead the Way in Sustainability Initiatives

Just when it looked like electric utility efforts to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions, deliver 100% clean energy and support environmental initiatives were falling on deaf ears, it appears customers have started to listen. According to the J.D. Power 2025 Sustainability Index,^SM released today, a steadily growing number of electric utility customers say they are aware of their provider’s carbon reduction, clean energy and environmental initiatives. While utilities still have a long way to go to reach a critical mass, recent increases in customer awareness show that many electric utilities are making significant progress.

“Customer awareness and support for electric utility sustainability efforts is on the rise, and that’s important because utilities will need their customers’ support if they are ever going to reach their clean energy and climate-related goals,” said Ramah Vaughn, director of utilities intelligence at J.D. Power. “Sustainability is more than just a buzzword or a marketing gimmick for electric utilities. Delivering on stated sustainability goals is core to the business strategies of these utilities and their efforts seem to be working—customers who are aware of their provider’s sustainability efforts report significantly higher satisfaction levels.”

Following are some of the key findings of the 2025 index:

• Incremental increases in awareness and support for sustainability: Overall, 27% of electric utility customers say they are aware of whether their utility has declared a goal to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions, up from 21% in 2024 and 19% in 2023. The overall Sustainability Index score for electric utilities evaluated in the study—which is based on customers’ awareness, engagement and advocacy for their local utility’s climate initiatives—is 37 (on a 100-point scale), up 5 points from 2024.

• Sustainability scores highest in west and south: On a regional basis, overall sustainability scores are highest in the western and southern United States. On a state-by-state basis, Georgia (41), Michigan (41), Mississippi (41), California (40) and Florida (40) have the highest overall sustainability scores.

• Utilities with high awareness of their sustainability efforts score higher in customer satisfaction: Overall customer satisfaction is 296 points higher on average among customers who say their provider is doing more than other businesses on environmental issues.

Following is the list of all electric utility companies and cities that were evaluated, in alphabetical order:

AEP

Alliant Energy

Ameren

Avangrid

Berkshire Hathaway Energy

CMS Energy

Con Edison

CPS Energy

Dominion

DTE Energy

Duke Energy

Duquesne Light

Edison International

Emera

Entergy

Evergy

Eversource

Exelon

FirstEnergy

L.A. Dept. of Water & Power

National Grid

NextEra Energy

OGE Energy Corp.

Pacific Gas and Electric

Pinnacle West

Portland General Electric

PPL Corporation

PSE&G

Puget Energy

Sacramento Municipal Utility District

Salt River Project

Sempra Energy

The Sustainability Index evaluates electric utility customers’ awareness, support, engagement and advocacy for their local utility’s climate sustainability programs and goals. The index applies to the 35 largest U.S. electric utility companies and cities that each serve 500,000 or more residential customers. The 2025 index is based on responses from 113,006 business and residential electric utility customers and was fielded from May 2024 through May 2025.

For more information about the J.D. Power Sustainability Index, visit https://www.jdpower.com/business/sustainability-certification-program.

See the online press release at http://www.jdpower.com/pr-id/2025081.

About J.D. Power

J.D. Power is a global leader in consumer insights, advisory services, and data and analytics. A pioneer in the use of big data, artificial intelligence (AI) and algorithmic modeling capabilities to understand consumer behavior, J.D. Power has been delivering incisive industry intelligence on customer interactions with brands and products for more than 55 years. The world's leading businesses across major industries rely on J.D. Power to guide their customer-facing strategies.

J.D. Power has offices in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific. To learn more about the company's business offerings, visit JDPower.com/business. The J.D. Power auto-shopping tool can be found at JDPower.com.

About J.D. Power and Advertising/Promotional Rules: www.jdpower.com/business/about-us/press-release-info

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